Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c20.51

c20.51

One kind of picture that was popular with the Mughals was the equestrian portrait. Richly dressed nobles, with lance and buckler, beautifully balanced on prancing and gaily caparisoned chargers, are a feature in all folios of this art. The idea is entirely an Indian one. Horses in Persian pictures are common, and cavaliers charging across the country on fleet Arab steeds are frequently represented. But in Persian painting the equestrian portrait is practically unknown. The Mughals were no better horsemen than the Persians, neither are their drawings of the animal so good as those of the Safavid school. But they realized the dignity and importance of a fine seat on a fine horse, and how well such a combination lent itself to pictorial effect. Plate LXIII, which depicts a cavalier who has been identified as Prince Dara Shikoh, is a typical example of this form of portraiture. It is a graceful and spirited composition, in spite of its conventional intention, and displays a sense of rhythm, which gives it no little charm. The straight line of the lance emphasizes the springing curves in the horse, while the rich colouring of the costume and the horse-equipment, the whole on a delicate terra-verte ground, make the picture a very attractive one. Dara Shikoh’s misfortunes have already been referred to, but his brother Shuja’s end, also due to the Machiavellism of Aurangzeb, may be mentioned here, as an excellent portrait of the prince has survived, and is reproduced on Plate LXIV, Fig. 1. In a very simple specimen of outline drawing in the *siyāhī qalam*, we see the features of Shah Jahan’s second son, who has not inaptly been designated Prince ‘Valiant’. Here he is shown as a mere youth of about sixteen years of age, but he lived until over forty, when, hunted from cover to cover like a wounded animal by his more successful rival to the Mughal throne, he disappeared for ever into the jungles of Arakan.¹ Another tragical circumstance, reflecting in this case on the character of the Emperor Jahangir, is recalled by the portrait of the rider on Plate LXIV, Fig. 2. An inscription on the picture states that it represents Sher Afghan, the first husband of Nur-Jahan. After many dramatic escapes, which form the subject of more than one Mughal picture, from the nets spread by the covetous Jahangir, this nobleman, whose only fault was that he possessed a beautiful wife, finally succumbed to the hired assassin's knife in 1607. Sher Afghan had a reputation for bravery which he had often to display under very trying conditions, and his features and pose in the picture seem to suggest something of the chivalry with which he was accredited. The miniature is much mutilated—in the course of its vicissitudes it has been ruthlessly cut down—but even in its present state it is not difficult to see that the artist has been successful in his decorative treatment of the horse. In all these pictures of equestrian subjects it is instructive to follow the development of this animal through its various stages, from the pure Arab in the Persian illustrations to the coarse country-bred of the later Indian miniatures.